re: Dividend stocks and DRIPs as a long term investment vehicle

When you limit yourself to only a handful on individual securities, there is always more risk than maintaining a diversified portfolio. I think large cap companies that pay a consistently growing dividend are an important part of almost any portfolio, but only as a fraction of it. Depending on your age, allocating some of your portfoli to mid/small cap firms(that consistently beat large caps) or fixed income may be more appropriate. I'm not trying to discredit your strategy, I hold DRIPs with some of the companies you have mentioned in fact, but diversifying is an incredibly easy way to manage risk and there aren't many professionals that would disagree with me. The amount of research that goes into investing in individual securities is significant, and most people aren't capable of spending the required time.